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Page 19
“Message received, Avery,” Solomon said without looking up from his computer. “I promise I’ll talk to you before committing homicide.”
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Hector began, “but this book club has been a hell of an introduction to St. Ives for me. I’m worn out! But I’m also proud of what we did. That confession shook me up. Right up until the moment she spoke the words, I thought of this as an amusing pastime that wouldn’t ultimately change anything.”
“Me too,” Josie said, a trifle sadly. “I agree with Hector the thrill of crime-solving has been heady and a part of me wishes it never had to end. Then I realize if the murder club continues, success means people I care about could get hurt.”
Avery turned to Elliot for his thoughts on the matter and found him in deep concentration of a canapé. Of all of them, she would thought he had the most to celebrate, and yet, of all of them, he displayed the least interest in celebrating.
“Elliot, you were instrumental in bringing Jenny’s killer to justice. Don’t you have any final words of wisdom? And if you say ‘crime doesn’t pay’ I’ll scream.”
“Don’t tempt me, Mrs Holmes. That sounds very entertaining.” He lifted his glass in a toast. “All I have to say is that it takes tremendous moral courage to pursue the right course of action when a wrong has been committed by a friend and member of your community. You have all demonstrated exceptional character and that’s a rare and perfect thing. You have served your country well. I salute you.”
Their glasses clinked together with a ringing sound that Avery must’ve heard a thousand times in her life. Never before had it meant as much as it did that night.
Epilogue
SHE STEPPED out into her back yard, a glass of red wine in hand and a fuzzy sweater draped over her shoulders. Thanksgiving had arrived in St. Ives in a burst of fiery colour.
The book club was on hiatus with everyone too busy with Thanksgiving, Halloween, and family obligations to meet regularly. Dennis and Helen had their brood visiting for the week, Hector and Joyce were on a tour of the region’s vineyards, and Josephine’s children had issued an invitation for her to visit that came with an airline ticket. Apparently her involvement in a cold case had made her interesting. Even Elliot had plans. He was leaving town for a few weeks on a mysterious trip to an unspecified location. The real mystery was how much Avery missed seeing these people who only a few months ago had been strangers.
As for Avery, she celebrated Thanksgiving with a roast turkey dinner from the bistro on King Street. Herb and butter whipped potatoes, glazed carrots, homemade cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, cooked and packaged to go.
It was exquisite.
For the first time in thirty years, Avery was sipping wine after dinner instead of scrubbing pots and pans. Too bad she was doing it alone.
Dylan was spending Thanksgiving with the family of a girl he’d met in university. It was silly, but she felt—rather she knew—this was the beginning of the end. Her nephew had found another family, one with actual people in it. The girl had brothers. How could Avery compete with that? She wished him a happy Thanksgiving and promised to bring him up to date on the doings of the book club when she got a chance.
She set her wine down on the patio table and tucked her arms into the sweater. Her mind drifted to Karen Haggerty and how she was spending this Thanksgiving. For the first time in forty years, she wouldn’t be presiding over a turkey dinner, surrounded by her daughter and grandchildren, her friends from St. Ives School and the volunteers from the Women’s Auxiliary who were alone at the holidays.
Her arrest had left a hole in St. Ives. Not every citizen was happy to see justice prevail. Greeting some members of the Battleaxe Brigade on the street elicited a chilly response. She hoped the bad feeling would blow over eventually.
Karen had sworn that she wasn’t a threat to anyone and as much as Avery wanted to believe that was true, she couldn’t ignore her torment of Jesse Sutcliffe or her plot to break up Duncan’s marriage.
Personal feelings didn’t come into it. The law was the law. Her confession held up and charges were laid. Karen would stand trial for the murder of Jenny Blake. At last on the front lines of a big story, the Haldimand Herald feasted on the crime, dissecting it from every angle. Imogene and her children had lost the most in all this and Avery was reminded of Elliot’s admonition that Karen’s arrest wouldn’t bring Jenny back.
It didn’t.
And yet—and yet—she would do it again if she was given the choice. Somehow, in the glittering October light lingering behind the maples, Avery felt that Jenny was at peace. She lifted her glass of wine in silent salute. Justice had been served and the book club had been its instrument. That alone was an amazing accomplishment. It almost excused not writing a word for a month, facing financial ruin and the end of everything she’d come to love in this new life of hers, post-Thomas.
Avery stilled as a whisper of an idea went through her. She picked up her wine glass and hurried into the house. The fire was burning low. She stirred it up, added another log, and then fetched her laptop from the office.
The fire flickered. The ruby wine glowed in the glass.
She opened the file of her work-in-progress and began typing the first paragraph of her new novel. A story of love, jealousy, betrayal and murder. It was all there and it poured out of her.
It began with an advertisement for murder.
THE END
About the Author
NADINE DOOLITTLE was born in Comox, British Columbia, the third daughter of an RCAF mechanic and his Scottish wife. A graduate of Vancouver’s prestigious Studio 58 Theatre Program, her career detoured from acting to casting for film and television with Toronto’s Alliance Films, and finally writing for the award-winning weekly newspaper, The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Her debut novel, Iced Under was shortlisted for Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 2009 (Crime Fiction). The second book in the series, The Grey Lady, was published by Toronto’s McArthur and Company in 2012. Her third psychological mystery, The River Bride was published by the author in July 2014.
Advertisement for Murder is the first book in her new series, A St. Ives Book Club Mystery.
Nadine has two grown children, two stepdaughters, a cat, and seven grandchildren. She lives with her partner on twenty-two forested acres in West Quebec where she writes full time.
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Contact her at Writing for Her Life
Follow Nadine Doolittle on Amazon to be informed of New Releases!
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Dear Readers: In the age of ebooks, you are the curators of literature. The New York Times doesn’t have as much influence! Thank you for taking a moment to leave a review of this novel and helping other readers in making a decision. ~ Nadine Doolittle
GATINEAU HILLS MYSTERIES
No serial killers. No psychopaths. It’s the one you thought you knew.
The setting is the villages and wilderness places of Quebec with all the limitations a rural society enjoys and puts up with. Homicide in this neck of the woods is not solved by high tech law enforcement, but by the deductive genius of Detective Sergeant Rompré. The murder is just the beginning.
ICED UNDER
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9937704-0-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-9937704-5-6
Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable life in Toronto and with her two daughters in tow, takes possession of a rundown cottage on a frozen lake. But escape isn’t that easy. Sara is broke and close to a breakdown when she discovers the body of a child trapped under the clear ice. Her name is Oralee Pelletier and she has been missing for five months.
2009 Shortlist for Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel
“The plot is well managed with its mixture of mysteries and Sara’s deteriorating family circumstances as a nearly poverty stricken divorcee (...) Given her achievements here, Nadine Doolittle’s name is one to watch for in the future.” —MYSTERIOUS
REVIEWS for Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
THE GREY LADY
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9937704-3-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-9937704-2-5
A driving rainstorm. A remote country home. And one killer. Secrets, lies and hidden hates surface at a gathering of eight to celebrate Malcolm Driver—a successful author, spiritual leader and former member of a commune where a young pregnant girl was drowned.
“As with any good mystery, virtually everyone has something to hide ... tightly written and perfectly paced, we feel we are being swept along by the story like a fallen branch in a fast-flowing river of spring runoff.” —MONTREAL REVIEW OF BOOKS
THE RIVER BRIDE
eBook ISBN: 978-0-9937704-7-0
Print ISBN: 978-0-9937704-6-3
Marlee Bremer claims her husband is a sexual deviant. Trey Bremer insists it was only a game. Seven years ago, the family’s au pair was found slain in an abandoned trailer. Tried and convicted for the girl’s murder, Trey has always asserted his innocence. The truth of what happened to Teresa Musgrave that day begins to unravel when an anonymous note arrives at the Stollerton Record. On the hunt for the big story that could save her career, Alvina Moon is caught up in a disturbing crime and the victim’s beautiful, troubled artist husband.
“But there’s a lot of personal drama, too. This story is a psychological thriller, as much about unraveling relationships and desperate people, as it is about revisiting an old mystery.” MOJO FICTION
Contact her at Writing for Her Life
Visit Nadine Doolittle on Amazon
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